Suspect in custody, and it looks like the right one. Dropped his phone at the scene, and picked out of a lineup by the victim. Hard to imagine this happening in our neighborhood. He'll, it's hard to imagine in any neighborhood.

"The Post reports that the suspect was in custody: "Sources said he was found in Red Hook after leaving his cellphone at the crime scene." The victim ID'd the suspect, Willie Weathers, in a police line up last night."

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Anthony Weiner provided a valuable service. The same gullible, vapid press corps that touted Chris Quinn as a prohibitive front runner all pounced like ravenous hyenas on Weiner's entry into the race. The service was (I assume) unintentional; it was to reveal the Potemkin nature of Quinn's popular support.

[side note: Josh Marshall's TPM has been a daily read for at least 10 years - one of my favorite left-leaning national political blogs, but he's shockingly out of the loop on NYC/NYS internal politics. I don't intend that as criticism, one can't be all things to all people, and Josh admits as much himself.]

As you saw, Anthony Weiner dropped like a stone in the latest Quinnipiac poll. He fell from a 1st place 26% to a 4th place 16%. But I wanted to flag what I think is the more interesting detail in the …

Monday, July 29, 2013

And also, presumably, so that the Mastellone's owners can retire comfortably. And god bless 'em.

This is sad, but doesn't hit me as hard as say, Good Foods closing, for two reasons. One, it's not my regular Italian specialty place (and I'm loathe to lose any, but we shop where we shop and I've still got Caputo's … or one of the meat stores for other things. Two, instead of housing another bank, it's saving the Pacific Green that will soon be evicted from their current space.

Best thing to do is to be happy for the people who poured their lives into the business and had a good opportunity to move on. And hope we hold onto every precious home style Italian deli we have left!

I just don't see this as the panacea that the Google geeks do. For one thing the people who are really emotionally wedded to cars want to drive, not ride. And the transition issue alluded to is a huge one - how safe will you feel in your driverless car when most of the other cars on the road are still being driven by the same yahoos we have now?

Self-driving cars seemed futurist a century ago; today, it seems out of touch to focus on cars at all. Americans are buying fewer cars, driving less and getting fewer licenses as each year goes by. Rates of car ownership are decreasing. Bikeshare, rideshare and carshare programs are gaining in popularity and acceptance, as are transit-oriented communities.

So why continue to design and plan for a car-based society? Transit innovation is possible, and is indeed inspirational, in many non-North-American cities. The TransMilenio bus rapid transit system in Bogotá, Colombia, for example, comes to each bus stop every 10 seconds and carries close to 40,000 passengers per hour, 1.6 million per day. (Every 10 seconds — can you imagine?) In the United States, it feels like all that innovation is connected to the automobile with app-enabled carsharing, ridesharing and even the renting out of one’s driveway for extra revenue. While this sort of invention is a welcome addition and helps reduce the problem of one person driving alone in one car, it has the potential to lessen our belief in public transit as a public good as greater numbers of people turn to these customized solutions for getting to work.

Car share is something that I think will be huge in the coming century . . . and I suspect we'll spend a lot of the next century undoing some of the damage done during the second half of the 20th century's headlong embrace of the car culture. Better transit and land use planning is going to be of far greater import than driverless cars.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

SUNY's plans to close LICH received a major setback today as Bill Deblasio's legal team were successful in stopping SUNY from vacating Judge Baynes's temporary restraining order. Once again, SUNY has failed to persuade a judge of the legality of their plans and efforts to close the hospital. Appellate Division Judge Robert Miller ordered the SUNY to the maintain services and staff that were in place on Friday, July19.

Of course Assemblywoman Joan Millman, State Senator Dan Squadron, Councilmembers Brad Lander and Steve Levin and a whole host of community activists too numerous to count deserve a lot of praise for the ongoing efforts to keep LICH alive.

When my then one-year-old daughter couldn't breathe and was gasping for air in the middle of the night I was fortunate to have LICH right down the road. My family is grateful to all those fighting a state bureaucracy that sees a collection of assets to be raided, rather than a facility for serving our community. Please keep up the fight.

In a bold move that blatantly ignores court orders, SUNY Downstate officials are relocating patients, transferring employees and planning to shut down all services at Long Island College Hospital this…

A Transit Hub in the Making May Prove to Be the Grandest - NYTimes.com

Pretty awesome picture from inside. As I said the other day, this thing is going to be massive and I'll predict, pretty awe inspiring. Perversely and paradoxically, the WTC site is likely to endure as one of the nations top tourist destinations. In the long run the outrageous cost of the WTC PATH hub might prove a worthwhile investment.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Now to imagine a future where more and more economic and social
activity emerges in centers outside the central business district.
More economic centers and shorter commutes, making better use of our
transit network? Something to aspire to.

The United States - not even a contender. Think for a second about
what we could have done with the trillions Bush squandered and try not
to fly into a murderous rage. Republicans (and "Third Way" Democrats)
are why we can't have nice things.

"Five countries – Germany, China, Spain, Japan, and France – are
global standouts, providing their citizens with long distance lines, a
broad network of stops, and incredible high speeds. Some, like Japan,
have been building high speed rail since it was invented in the '60s.
Others, like China, have demonstrated how quickly a high speed rail
network can be built in just a few years."

Come enjoy our 12th Annual Bastille Day Party on Smith Street. Join the

crowds of French and friends and neighbors at an event with no purpose

otherthan to provide us with something we all need – an opportunity to

PLAY!!

Why here?? Our neighborhoods are so filled with French families that the public schools are French/English bilingual. One third of our 220 storefronts are Food & Drink establishments – Vive les gourmets!!! We have huge support from our local business partners, especially Bar Tabac to make this happen. Even the sand is donated every year by a local resident/business - Quadrozzi Concrete, who donates and spreads it with their cement mixer truck. In fact, that operation, which begins at 10AM if you want to arrive early, is a remarkable, "only in NY" sight to see. Bernard Decanali (formerly of Robin des Bois) organizes the biggest Petanque Tournament in the world outside France. Because, after all – THIS IS BROOKLYN!!!!

There will be live music (Lipbone Redding from 2 to 6PM) and Dancing In the Street. There will be lots of space to sit a while and enjoy whatever you choose to eat & drink, as well as to people watch & make new friends. Food & Drink will come from Bar Tabac, Apartment 138, Coco Roco, Brooklyn Bangers, Dassara, Union Grounds, Hunters, Kittery, Britain Indian Restaurant, One Girl Cookies, Bien Cuit, Les Bretons, Mad Macarons.

Friday, July 12, 2013

It's a weekend Manhattanhenge! Today and tomorrow mark the last Manhattanhenges of 2013 , though they may be ruined by the weather (but keep in mind, clouds don't always ruin the moment ). Here's Neil…

"The board finally approved the plan following a four-hour public hearing, with the condition that the Department of Transportation come back in one year to review its effect.

"It took a little time, but we definitely made the right decision," said CB6 transportation committee member Gary Reilly, who also backed the first city proposal. "If we failed to act, more people will be hurt and someone will die.""

Long Island College Hospital (LICH). Photo: MK Metz SUNY Downstate , as part of a state-mandated "Sustainability Plan" to save itself from bankruptcy, came up with a scheme to create a corporation to …

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Remember this every time you hear someone pushing a cap and trade
bill: it is this simple. Anything else is needlessly complicated to
create a skim for somebody (big banks, current polluters, investment
houses). A carbon tax is the simplest, fairest and most efficient
solution. No more Rube Goldberg policy approaches, please.

Third Way is a bunch of sleazebag closet Republicans who have one
goal: keep taxes low on rich people. That's it. The Yankee Republican
is not extinct, it's usually hiding in plain sight as a Third Way or
DLC Democrat.

They are more dangerous than the GOP, because they undermine the party
from within.

One of my big concerns here, as with 360 Smith, was keeping the mature street trees.

Light at the end of the tunnel. Hard to believe I first started writing about this project in 2007. Of course at the time a big fear was that this was going to be a finger tower. I know a lot of people were not thrilled with this project, but it could have been much worse. After five years of demolition, inaction, then construction, I'm just happy to see the sidewalk shed come down.